HDNet will broadcast U2's 2005-06 "Vertigo" Tour in High-Definition premiering Sunday, January 29, 2006 at 9:00 p.m. ET on the HDNet Concert Series. The concert will features classic U2 songs such as "New Year's Day" and "Where The Streets Have No Name." Newer hits such as "Vertigo," one of the many successful singles from U2’s the number one studio album "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" will also be featured.

ReplayTV announced today that it will introduce a new Digital Video Recorder (DVR) software solution in 2006. The new software application is designed for the personal computer, which globally is the fastest growing video entertainment platform. To initiate its new strategy, ReplayTV has teamed with Hauppauge Computer Works, the leading manufacturer of TV receivers for PCs, to create an affordable and innovative PC-based DVR solution. ReplayTV plans to bundle its PC DVR software application with Hauppauge’s market-leading WinTV-PVR tuner/encoder PC cards beginning in 2006 for the North American market. Today’s announcement follows a successful long term restructuring of ReplayTV by the company’s parent company, D&M Holdings Inc.. ReplayTV will soon complete the sale of all remaining 5500 Series DVR products, completing the first phase of the transformation of the brand from a hardware manufacturer to a leading provider of advanced DVR software and services to consumers of entertainment PCs. Today’s announcement has no impact on existing ...

Satellite provider DirecTV is launching a campaign to promote its own digital video recorder (DVR) to new and existing customers, says a recent article in the New York Times. DirecTV will still support the TiVo service and has priced its own service, which was developed by a company owned by News Corporation (the parent of DirecTV), at the same fee of $5.95 per month. The article alludes to a savings of $1 per month per subscriber, which should be highly impactful, considering DirecTV’s vast subscriber base.

This summer, satellite TV broadcaster EchoStar plans to unveil the first portable DVR in the US. The DVR will be called the PocketDish and would have the capability to store TV programs, audio, photos and Internet content. The PocketDish will link up to DishNetwork set-top boxes/DVRs via USB 2.0 wiring.

HDTV sales continue to boom at the retail and custom level to the tune of over 1,000,000 sets per month, according to recent Consumer Electronics Association reports. HDTV is the home theater industry’s “killer application,” providing an outrageously good video experience on TVs that are ultra-thin. The problem is that a DTV (DTVs are TVs that can reproduce HD content but don’t necessarily have tuners built into them) rarely have HD tuners built into them even at the highest price points.